New pages on Blog - La Noria information

Sunday a.m.
It’s a beautiful day today – feels like the cold spell is finally over. I’m sitting here working on the blog. I have added two pages to it – one with information about us - Bill and me and one with information about our RV Jennie. They remain a work in progress.

Just below header picture

If you have suggestions for them please let me know. Also added a place for “followers.” I guess? it is to notify a “follower” when I do an updated post. And no I don’t know how to add your name. I don’t have to follow this.
I bought some Lipton Ice Tea Green Tea Citrus flavor in WalMart the other day. It is the same tea I drink at home but of course this is made in Mexico. It is quite a bit sweeter than what I buy in the US. The same thing is true of pop – CocaCola made here is much sweeter than that made in the US. Strange.
And Bill is right behind me cooking up a storm. He is making Milanese – bought a bunch of pieces of meat yesterday so he is cooking them all and will freeze a bunch for sandwiches in the future.

Cooking

Final product

Bagging it for freezing

 After he finishes cooking I’ll make my coleslaw. Oh oh I created a monster. He says we shouldn't buy it anymore he likes the one I make better. OOPS
Regressing again about our couple of trips to La Noria – very interesting trips. It is so nice that he speaks the language we learn so much.
Where to start. As with all the towns in Mexico there is so much history and so many interesting people and stories. This is the sign on the front of one of the leather shops we go into all the time.

The sign outside leather shop

It says “In this place worked the last 50 years of his life the Master Leather worker Alejo Salas Aguirre -1909-1999- A good man a great friend.”

Inside the shop still works his son

Sewing on a saddle part

And his grandson and his son. 

Grandson is on the far left - Bill is checking out a piece of leather

They make everything leather. From shoes, knife sheaths, saddles, purses, and belts to name a few. This just caught my eye – a unique bag holder.

Would you like one of these?

Here is the father drawing a design on the leather part of a saddle stirrup.

A closer look at it.

You can barely see the outline for the second row of stitching

The sewing machine with the variegated thread he is using to stitch the design.

Thread is on the floor

The son also works with gourds turning them into decorative lamps. The gourd before and after

From there shop we walked around town and visited with the older lady in town who imports all the leather pieces. Love this guy he is always sitting here and talks to everyone who goes by. He is sitting in a rocker with a hemp seat.

This is the Civil Building – no mural here

But it has a really nice porch.

Nice tile floor

One of the older homes. We asked how old the buildings were and learned that when the French invaded Mexico in the 1860s they burned most of the towns they passed through. So most of the buildings in town date from the 1870s or later. Look at the roof line – it is wavy.

Also Pancho Villa was very active in and stayed in arnd around this area for a while. We walked through this little store that sells everything from mops to lettuce.

Chairs so everyone can sit and visit after shopping. No lights inside.

After passing through the store we entered a store room behind it with these hand painted tiles on the floor

These tiles were made like the ones we saw in Malpica

And then out into a courtyard separating two families homes. Here we heard a great story.
Our friend told us that this area used to be the town’s movie theater. It closed about 20 years ago and was in operation for about 30 years. He had us look left at the second floor wall. The holes in the wall were for the projectors.

Then he had us look right – The lower part of this building did not exist then, the overhang has been added – it used to just be a large white wall used as the screen. The bench in the background is one of the original movie theater benches.

The benches were placed in this area – now the courtyard between the houses and laundry area.

This is the living room of one of the houses.

Very comfortable room

The wired continue outside and finally end up at a plug for the electricity.

This is a picture of the outside of the house. It is one room wide but several rooms long.

cannon ball topes

Bill and Manuel the leather shop owner walking back towards his shop

Lunch is almost ready. Smells so good. It is being outside in front of a small meat market.

Grilled, chopped wrapped in a tortilla

The leather shop. It originally belonged to his father.

He is married to the women, Jessie we met last week at the Tequila Distillery and is cousins with the people in the shoe factory.
Some snake skins that The Driver covets.

snake skins don't know what kind they are

A saddle in the making

This is just for laughs and tourists – it an over the shoulder style “gun belt” but for tequila. The large loop on the left is for the bottle of tequila, the next smaller loop is for a container of cut up limes, then the shot glasses and then a baby bottle to start them young. Don’t know but they sell a lot of them.

For the serious drinker

A piece for another saddle that had to be finished the next day. He says he really loves his work.

Fringe on end - more stitching to be done

The building that the little store is in.

Built after 1860 - plaza in front of it with the Gazebo

Just a picture of the gazebo. This is one of the few towns where the gazebo is not in front of the church. The church is a couple of blocks away.

A couple of different kinds of topes in the road – this is several big strands of braided rope – its getting old now but still serves its purpose – you slow down.

And this is a killer tope – broken cement – will jar your teeth out if you hit it fast.

As we were driving into town I noticed a blacksmith at work so we walked down to his shop. He was happy to show us around and explain this to us. This shop has been in his family generations.

4th generation blacksmith - shop is over 100 years old

This is his forge sand some of the tools

To light the forge (it has an electric switch) he took a big pair of pliers with heavy wooden handles and poked the switch – sparks flew and the forge came to life – I about jumped out of my shoes. Everyone got a laugh out of that.

fire

Some of the tolls he uses – some over 100 years old.

Some if these are from his grandfathers time

An aged anvil

It is worn down

Same sparks flew when he turned off the switch!
A box of mule and horse shoes he’d completed.

I had to have a set – so bought a set of mule shoes for 50 Pesos at today’s rate US4.15

Now I guess I’ll have to buy the mule to use the shoes NOT!!
And yet another small metal working shop.

Our errands taken care of and our trips to La Noria duely recorded we returned to the big city for Saturday afternoon and evening.

Art Walk in Mazatlan and Chinese take out

Saturday p.m.
About Friday – It was very cold here – I was wearing long sleeves and my fleece vest in the evening. And still windy but not as bad as Thursday.
We have extended our stay here until Feb 25th – it is so much cheaper to pay RV park by the month than the week that it makes sense to stay longer. Make sense?
I still can’t get over how good I feel after feeling so bad for a couple of weeks. Hooray!
We drove over to the old dirstrict again and just walked around and in and out some of the stores we hadn’t been in yet. Went into one that was kind of like a Dollar General. Same type of merchandise. Bought a package of hangers and a package of small plastic refrigerator storage containers. Then we saw this. Haven’t seen milk in a plastic bag since our trip to Argentina in 1978. Didn’t know they still sold it. Click on this link
http://www.movingon1.com/peruchanchan.html  to see where we were first introduced to milk in bags - about half way down the page I mention them.

Milk bags

Also found another yardage store – but just looked around – mostly the yardage was very fancy. For wedding or formal dresses. Very pretty stuff. Just wandered around. Why you have to watch your step while walking here. The round holes were supposed to have lights in them. Now they are empty???? Also the sidewalks are very uneven – up and down by a couple of inches.

Watch Your Step

Lots of outside vendors. This is a favorite. Shredded coconut in different flavors.

Also selling dates and gum drops

After finishing there we took short trip to WalMart needed some groceries and I was looking for something I thought I’d seen there but couldn’t find it -Pimento Cheese spread. Bill did find milanese meat though so now he’ll have to spend one day cooking up a bunch. And I got some green and red cabbage to make coleslaw. Hope I can remember how to make it. The coleslaw here all has peas and carrots in it. Ick. From there we went to another market and found Chinese take out. Both got combo meals and headed back to Jennie to eat. It was good! and had enough left over for another meal.
After eating I laid down to read and woke up three hours later – just barely got to watch the sunset while on the way to the Art Walk in the Historic District.

Pretty at Night

The first Friday of every month a lot of the studios and art galleries stay open late. I’ve wanted to do this for a couple of years but for one reason or another we missed it. It was well worth it and we didn’t get to half of the places.
We started out at the Plaza Machado and visited the gallery in the Hotel Machado. A couple of nice oil paintings in there, but was closely watched so couldn’t take any pictures. Right in front of the hotel the gazebo was all lit up and a band was setting up.

Band that changed our plans for the evening

From there we walked a block to Nidart – I’ve mentioned it before – he makes leather masks. But saw this there this time. Fell in love with it. The details on the face are amazing.

About 18 inches tall

Bill and the owner of the gallery, Rafael had struck up quite a friendship when we were in here a couple of weeks ago and he gave Bill instructions on how to make the leather masks. Well the friendship grew last night and Rafael ended up walking us up the street to an art school – Limon Y Mango - that he helps sponsor and teaches at. The outside of the building

When they were in the process of restoring the building they were cleaning the walls and discovered these wonderful frescos

This floor tile is over 160 years old and original to the home.

This is one of the interesting pieces of art the students had on display. It is a clay depiction of a water fountain. Check out the PVC pipe and tire base - you can see the tread on the tires and the seams in the pipe and the water drips. Its about 12 inches tall. I loved it.

This is the top of the wall in one of the open work areas.

From there we crossed the street and went to the pent house of a condo where an artist was displaying his oils. A couple of them were outstanding – especially one of a ballerina. Did not get a picture of her but did get one of these peppers – I like the colorfulness of it.

Then we visited a beaded jewelry shop – got some ideas for myself there and another oil painting gallery – he did quite a few pictures of chickens – cute but……
I had planned out our whole evening:
          1. Watch the sunset as we drove towards the Centro Historico
          2. Go to the Art Walk
          3. Have dinner in the new Argentine restaurant in the Plaza
          4. Watch the first Carnaval parade at 9:30 starting from the Plaza.
Well the best laid plans of mice and men - I’ll explain. I woke up late from my nap so missed most of the sunset. We did do part of the Art Walk, but because of late start missed a lot of places. Dinner at the restaurant was postponed also. By the time we were ready to eat a VERY loud brass band had set up in the gazebo – we could hear it from two blocks away. And the Argentine restaurant is right in front of the gazebo with outdoor seating.

We couldn’t hear each other scream at each other – let alone sit through a meal.

The Band - turn your speakers down!

It was too cold to just stand around waiting for the parade to start so we left and came home to finish our Chinese take out.
It was still a fun evening.
Today, Saturday we revisited La Noria and Puerta de Canoas and asked about Zip Lining. Oh Yah.
I've been sitting here fooling with this blog and have added a couple features to it. The first is an About Us page - its right under the  header picture - I'll add to it and add more tabs as I get inspired. Have also added a "Follower" section - so you can add your name and be notified of updates as I do them.
It's fun playing with this.

Meaning of Gringo and visit to Los Limones

Friday p.m.
Ever wonder where the word gringo came from. There are a lot of theories but… I’m stealing this from one of the English Mazatlan periodicals that we get here in the RV park.

The first theory is – during the Mexican revolution when the US soldiers were chasing Pancho Villa across the border into Mexico the US troops wore green uniforms and the Mexican people would shout “green go” whenever they encountered the soldiers. However the US soldiers wore tan uniforms at that time. And why would the Mexicans shout “green” when the word is “verde?”

Second theory – the word came from the Mexican-American war of 1846. In this versior the American soldiers san the song “Green Go the Rushes” while marching. So again the origin comes from the bastardization of the words “green go.” So if either of these theories is correct ONLY Americans should be called Gringo – not Canadians.

The first dictionary that listed gringo was published 1786 in Spain. The definition of the word at that point was “a foreigner with any type of accent that prevents them from speaking perfect Spanish” –Derived from the word “griego” meaning Greek. Chose the one you like.

Being called a gringo can be good or bad depending on how it is said.

I thought that was fun.
Well now it is Friday – didn’t get anything written yesterday.
It was cold and windy yesterday and cold today. Never got out of the low 60s and it got cold enough last night that I woke up with cramps in my feet from the cold. Ugh!
Thursday we went inland to La Noria again as Bill was picking up some leather supplies one of the shop owners there ordered for him. And tomorrow we are going back there so will leave all musings about there till later.

As we’ve been going back and forth on that highway I’ve noticed a couple of trees/bushes that had fruit like things hanging from them. So this time I asked The Driver to stop so I could get pictures. This tree has a weird looking fruit? on it. The shape reminds me of some kind of little squash but I know it isn’t.
Closer look.

And then we found these squash/squashes. We stopped and asked a lady waiting for a bus what they were chilicotes [a kind of squash/gourd] but they can’t be eaten – they are very bitter. Just the burros like them. But she said they can be dried and painted. So we have three.

We’ve passed a road sign pointing to Los Limones several time. In the distance I could see beautiful buildings. Thought to myself “must be a new fancy suburb or apartment complex.” I talked The Driver into taking the road. Well the ‘fancy suburb’ was a cemetery. Amazing.

A couple of pictures of it. See what I mean?

They look like houses they are so big

Continuing on down the road going to Los Limones

I like these cacti

Now the road in to Los Limones.

Sorry Willie

This turned out to be a very small town. Four or five dirt roads leading off one main one. A couple of the homes there. Lots of cactus and flowering trees though.

Pretty colorful home

Lots of plants around it

Another road in town guarded by mama cow.

Slow Down

Don’t bother me. Can’t you see I’m taking a nap.

Why is this one outside of the fence?

But Ma Ma!!!!

A couple of the town children just out of school - they wanted to practice their English. It was pretty good.

And the road out of town.

How can they keep anything clean with all the dust.

The air was hazy with the dust blowing. Very strong winds all day.
Then almost back to the main road we passed this pickup with these guys in it. The driver was laughing as I took this picture. Probably thinking GRINGO

Has this pickup loaded

Then secondary school was just letting out - different kind of kids. I remember once when I was reviewing a Head Start program and called the little ones kids. The teacher went balistic on me - "They are children. NOT goats." Never made that mistake again.

Also remember seeing a sign once while driving through the countryside "Kids for Sale." Sounded like a smart move to me.
Went back to Jennie and ate lunch then back into the central area for some shopping.

Very busy corner

I don’t know how he always manages to find parking not far from where we are going. It is a really busy section of town. 

3 Hermanos is a big shoe store chain

We, of course, stopped at the big Central Market – Bill got a couple of nice polo shirts with pocket for about US$9.00 each. But I didn’t find any thing for dinner

No. I don't think so - not today anyway

Cut me off that hunk right there.

Oh! No! Found another yardage store. Had to buy some of the cotton for US$1.10 a yard!

A DOLLAR A YARD - BUY BUY BUY

Got three yards each of a whole bunch of it – this is just a sample.

So Pretty

Then we bought some very Mexican print material for a different quilt.

Some of that and some of that and.....

Back outside heading towards the car this looked really good.

The watermelon really looked good

Then to the grocery store where we picked up a few more DVD movies at about US$6 each. After I fixed dinner – for the THIRD night in a row – we watched Along Came Polly It was kind of cute but gross in parts.
So that brings me up to today…….This guy was sitting outside watching me this morning.